This production would be interesting to anyone who enjoyed reading Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. This show about the McCourt family predates the novel by eleven years and was written by the brothers as a vehicle for themselves. There was a film made from Angela’s Ashes and some of the same stories are told here, but I found the film fairly dour and depressing. This show was closer to the way the brothers would tell stories in the pub about their lives or at parties, with much more rambunctious humour. They did have hard times in their lives growing up in repressive Catholic poverty and later dealing with anti Irish prejudice in America, but there is a wonderful way in Celtic cultures of being able to find the funny side of these experiences. One of the best stories is Frank’s first communion and how he threw up afterwards and his granny was worried that he’d vomited Jesus (the communion wafer) in her backyard. So she took him to the priest for confession, to ask what to do. The priest said to just wash it away with water and his granny sent him back to the exasperated priest to ask “normal water or holy water?” The small audience enjoyed the show, but I would have enjoyed it more had the McCourt Brothers been doing it. The two Maxes tried hard at their Irish accents and to have fun with the characters, but I found them a bit flat, particularly Max Gillies which was a surprise. Maybe they were a bit off because it was because it was a matinee with a small audience. I took my mum and her older partner and he had trouble hearing it. The actors did not seem to be miked, which made them shout and their words were sometimes hard to decipher. The audience was nearly all elderly, so a boosted sound system would have been a good idea. It was a pity that the show was not given a more recognisable title for ‘Angela Ashes’ fans, or better advertising, I think it might have gotten a larger audience.
“A Couple of Blaguards” was written by Frank & Malachy McCourt and performed by Max Gillies & Max Cullen